What Nobody Knows
by GravityMuse
Summary: No matter how complicated Piper and Leo’s relationship becomes, they always get one thing right.
1. The First Time

**A/N: **_Recently, I came across some spoiler discussions from when it was first learned that Chris was Piper and Leo's second son. Someone speculated that maybe Piper and Leo had been secretly meeting up all through the first half of season six, and no one else knew about it. Obviously, that didn't happen, but it inspired this multi-chapter fic. After reading the ratings guide and other people's stories that explore the sex stuff, I'm marking this as T because it's not ever very graphic, but if you think it should have an M rating, please let me know. And, as I'm new to this community, I want to thank **d-scarlet**, **WelshCanuck**, and **Rowdy Romantic** for my first ever reviews!  
_

**The First Time **

takes place between the episodes _Sword & the City_ and _Little Monsters_

The first time, it's an accident. She's tired from a particularly long fight against a rather stubborn demon, from Chris's endless whining, from Phoebe and Paige's boyfriend problems, from another health code violation that needed dealing with at the club, from Wyatt's toothache, but it's not the type of tired that makes her physically exhausted. It's the type of tired that attacks her defenses, the carefully constructed ones that allow her to have these types of conversations with her estranged husband without completely flipping out.

"So, tell me again what the doctor said about Wyatt," she says, shaking her head as if to physically clear the emotion that has washed over her. For the last four years, every problem she's had with her sisters, with demons, with whatever, she's turned to this man, and every part of her longs to throw herself into his arms like she's always done.

"He prescribed an antibiotic. Wyatt's next dose should be in two hours, but don't worry, I'll stick around and take care of it. You should get some sleep."

"Sleep." It comes out like a snort, which she's sure is insanely attractive, though she's too tired, too agitated to care.

"Piper, are you OK?"

"Actually, no. I got kind of caught in the crossfire today and I have this wound that's been bugging me. I'm sure it'll be fine in a few days."

"Let me heal you."

"No." On Leo's puzzled look, she waves a hand. "It's just – it's in a bit of an awkward place. I'd have to take off my jeans."

Leo smiles at her. "I've caught that show before."

"Oh, whatever." She sighs, and lowers her zipper in one quick motion.

"That looks like painful." His voice is full of sympathy as he kneels down in front of her, his right hand around her waist for balance as his left hand hovers above the nasty gash on her thigh. As his powers begin to work, his hand brushes up against her healing skin, and she lets out an involuntary gasp.

"Piper? Does that hurt?"

"No." Just the opposite, in fact. Without thinking, she sinks down to her knees, and he reacts by catching her fall, wrapping his arms around her body. Her hands go straight to his face, that beautiful face she thought she'd look into for the rest of her life, as they kneel together on the bedroom floor.

She kisses him. She is clear about this: she's the one who makes the first move. But he kisses her back, his mouth as eager as her own, and he doesn't stop to say how wrong it is, how they shouldn't be doing this, it complicates things, it goes against everything she says she wants, until her bra is tangled in his shirt on the other side of the room, and his jeans, too, are zipped open like hers.

You're right," she says, the soft skin of his ear between her teeth. "It's a really, really, really bad idea, but it's going to happen anyway."

She is somehow able to block out everything but the wanting; she pretends for a second she's the kind of woman who could treat sex casually. In a way, she's always been a tiny bit jealous of her younger sisters' abilities to separate the emotions from the physical; the only time in her life she'd ever slept with someone on the first date was, well, with Leo. She tries to go back to that, in her mind, to when he was new and unfamiliar and she knew nothing of his life or of his past, but even that is too painful, because there's no way to separate the man he is now -- her husband -- from the man he was then, who, to be honest, she was already halfway to falling in love anyway.

So she doesn't think at all. She just does. And after all they've gotten wrong in the past months, it's quite satisfying to remember when it comes to this, they can still get something exactly right.

"This doesn't change anything," she says to him immediately after, before he can even speak or act, and she instinctively steels herself against the look of pain that flashes across his face. She has trained herself against this, against thinking about what he feels, what hurts him, because how she functions is by convincing herself that she she's the only one whose been wronged.

"It can't. Not now. You know I –"

"Don't," she says, already knowing she can't bear to have him finish that sentence. "We can't do this again."

But they do.


	2. The Dream Time

**The Dream Time**

takes place between the episodes _Witch-Stock_ and _Prince Charmed  
_

The thing about loving an angel is that you're never quite done with him, even in your dreams.

"What are you doing here?" She says to him, as unkindly as she can. She's wearing that blue dress of hers, the one with the black straps and the green embroidery that hasn't fit in two years, and she's annoyed that she can't figure out if it's her subconscious or his that put her in this exact dress.

"I wouldn't be here if you didn't want me here," he says in his infuriatingly calm, logical way.

"I don't want you in my dreams," she says to him. "I'm moving on. You need to just – go."

"Piper, I don't know why you think I have any sort of control over this," he says as the scenery changes around them, shifts from the dark, musty room that smells like a poorly ventilated library to the Palace of Fine Arts, the pale pink columns glistening against the cool night air. Her feet are now bare, and she can feel the wet grass beneath her toes in a way that's not entirely unpleasant, certainly preferable to the anger that's bubbling up inside her.

"Well, it's not unprecedented," she spits at him. He's changed, too – the flannel has faded, and now he's wearing an improbably sharp blue dress shirt, a tie half loosened around his neck, like he's an investment banker or an accountant after a long day in the office. "And not only with me. Remember, I met Lillian. She told me all about your little visit to her."

"It's funny. You lecture me so much on trust, and on boundaries, and on staying out of your life, and yet, you had no problem hunting down my former wife and barraging her with questions about me."

"Hey, it's your dysfunctions we're talking about here, not mine," she says, pushing his chest.

"And that's more proof that I have no control over this situation." His smile is too stained with regret for it to be a real smile, but it grips her heart in a way her waking self has grown apt at ignoring. "The truth is, you're only having this dream because there's something you can't work out when you're awake, something that involves me."

"Maybe it's how much I hate you," she says, pushing at him again, this time, less playful. "How I can't stand that you're around all the time, and you won't go away, even though the whole reason you left me in the first place was because you chose your stupid job over your family, and now, you won't leave us alone."

She throws her hands at him, and watches him dissolve into a blast of blue lights, before solidifying again in front of her.

"You need to go away." Her voice is steel as she reaches her arms out to strike him again.

"Maybe you just want me to push back, for once," he says, grabbing her hands. His grip is tight, unfamiliar on her wrists, and for the first time ever, she feels his strength turned against her. "Maybe you want me to fight you. Maybe that's all you've been looking for, is for me to one day stand up to your crap, Piper."

She glares at him, struggling to free her arms, bruising her skin in the process.

"This is what it feels like," he says to her, his voice low and strange. "When the person you love more than anything hurts you."

"I know what it feels like to be hurt by you," she yells, and in her dream, she loses control. "Every time you've left me, every time you've told me that it can't work, it won't work, even the times you tried to convince me it was for my own good, that you were just protecting me. It would have been a thousand times less painful if you'd just punched me. Blown me up."

She's crying now. She doesn't know when it started, but she feels the sobs rack her body, and he pulls her to his chest, so she's crying into his tailored shirt. It's so real: she feels his arms close around her, feels the imprint of the buttons against her face, feels his lips on her forehead, suddenly soothing, melding back into her beloved husband, the one who always knew exactly how to comfort her.

"It's OK," he says, over and over, his voice like a mantra. "It's going to be OK."

"If this is really my dream," she says, "and you're not really here, how can you say that?"

"Because every part of you knows how much I love you," he whispers. "Even if you haven't been listening, your body, your mind, you know we'll find our way back to each other somehow. What we have can never really be squashed by anything, certainly not Them, no matter how bad it gets."

"It's pretty bad," she says through her tears. "All I want to do is hurt you."

"I know," he murmurs. "And you're succeeding. I can't show you that, I wouldn't, but you are."

"That should make me feel better," she says into his shirt. "But it doesn't. It makes me miss you more." She raises her head up, and his green eyes are glassy through her tears.

He kisses her. He's kissed her in dreams before, both the ones he's controlled and the ones he hasn't, and it always feels exactly this way: perfect. She closes her eyes and lets the kiss totally take over, lets it travel through her body until she can feel his touch in her furthest extremities, and she opens her eyes, and she's no longer standing in the middle of San Francisco, but is in a darkened bedchamber, somewhere elaborate and opulent and cold, and he's sweeping her up into his arms, and carrying her across the room in five steps to a bed the size of a small country covered in ivory satin sheets.

"This looks more like the setting for one of Phoebe's dreams," she says, shooting the room a puzzled glance as Leo lays her down without answering her. He touches her cheek gently, kneeling next to her prone body, then begins to kiss her again.

The sheets are luxurious on her back, which is suddenly bare. She opens her eyes to see that an ice blue satin negligee has replaced her dress. She glances up to find her husband completely naked, his strong arms braced on either side of her.

"You are so beautiful," Leo says, looking down at her. She arches up and pulls his body to hers, and his mouth moves immediately to her neck, tracing a pattern of kisses down her collarbone and to her chest. His hands slide the thin straps off her shoulders, and even through the silk fabric, his mouth finds her skin. She lets out a little gasp.

"I don't care whose dream this is," she moans, her body on fire. "I'm going to enjoy it."


	3. The Time After the Possession

A/N: I didn't realize how much I'd love the feedback, but I do! Thank you for your reviews!!

**The Time After the Possession**

(Takes place at the end of _A Call to Arms_)

Things have gotten better, but they've also gotten worse.

She's determined to be his wife again; she refers to herself as such, and she calls him her husband, in the present tense, no longer adding the qualifiers she'd insisted on before her pregnancy. Too much has happened to convince Piper that Leo is worth fighting for, in a way she was too stubborn to see before. She has become his cheerleader, explaining and defending his increasingly reckless actions to her sisters, while urging him to spend more time with her and the boys, finding any reason she can to keep him around the Manor.

In the two months since Chris's birth, he's developed the late-night habit of orbing into their bedroom – calling it "theirs" and not "hers" is another way she signals her determination to have him back – and laying next to her while she sleeps. He never wakes her, not intentionally, and sometimes he just stays still on his side of the bed. Sometimes he holds her. She wonders if he ever sleeps.

She felt something at the wedding today – something before the possessed-by-gods crap that's always happening to them – sitting beside him as a marriage took place in front of them. She couldn't help but think back to to their own wedding day, how complicated it all had seemed at the time, just trying to get married, and how much things have changed between them since the gold cord bound their hands together, supposedly forever. The words were different, but the intent was the same.

_Heart to thee, body to thee, always and forever, so mote it be._

Their wedding vows mean something, something not easily rendered. They knew it'd be difficult, but now she thinks that they were freaking idiots for not realizing exactly what difficult meant.

Now, after a day of sharing her body with a powerful goddess intent on uniting with the spirit who possessed her husband, and, in the process, bringing about the end of the world, she refuses to accept that their own fate, hers and Leo's, is in anyway parallel. In fact, she believes the exact opposite: her world needs to be reborn again, a world where love actually can conquer all.

She crosses the room in five bold steps to her husband, broken, on the floor.

"No one has to know," she tells him as she holds him.

Earlier, the goddess had tapped into the passion she has for Leo in a powerful way, and even though the spirit had left her body, that desire remained. Coupled with an urge to fix things, to heal the pain caused by the death of all her husband had believed in, to alleviate the guilt caused by the betrayal against their sons, it fills her with a strength she'd never quite known she could possess.

"Orb us home," she says, and within an instant, they are in their bedroom.

"I need you," he says to her, and his mouth finds hers. She's strong enough for this. She's strong enough to shed the unfamiliar clothes, to take her husband into her body, even if tomorrow nothing's changed, he's still lost, still driven by guilt or revenge or the voices in his head, she's strong enough to love him, to keep loving him, the best she can, until one day it's enough.

It has to be. It's more than just them now. Her sons need their father, more than she ever realized, and she knows what will happen to them if they grow up without him. She is determined to prevent that, to change the future, to keep him here with her, with them.

He's obsessed with protecting them, to the point where he can't think straight: she sees this, but she refuses to give up on him. He smells different, he tastes different, and she thinks that where he's been now lingers on his skin. She knows all about fighting demons, and she knows all about surrendering to them, too; she hopes that Leo can find his way through the darkness and back to where he belongs.

Here. In her bed. Their bed.

Once upon a time, Piper was a hopeless romantic, and even though the ensuing years have turned her bitter and cynical, there's a part of her that still believes in love. Moments like this, when they are together in perfect sync, when she can't even remember any of the horrible things that have been done to them, or any of the equally horrible things they've done to each other, when all she feels is perfect, uninterrupted pleasure, confirms that believing in love, in their love, is exactly the right choice.

He shudders inside her, and she feels the full weight of him against her, his face damp on her neck. She closes her eyes, and lets herself be held within his strong grasp. It's a small step, but it's a step.


	4. The Avatar Time

**The Avatar Time  
**(takes place just after the episode _There's Something About Leo_)

The thing is, she knew something was different.

No, not just different – of course he was different. Seemingly overnight, he reverted back to perfect husband, perfect father, understanding and attentive and always with the compliment. The roses. Red roses were so cliché, but they'd always been their thing – rose petals on her wedding day, a single red rose left on her desk, on the kitchen counter, in a vase by their bed, somewhere where she'd see it, and know that he loved her, that he thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

His words, not hers.

It was all she wanted for so very long – to have her husband back – but yet, as soon as she got it, she couldn't trust it. It was more than Piper just being Piper: she knew there was something Leo wasn't telling her.

And it had something to do with power.

The truth is, sleeping with Leo had always been different than sleeping with anyone else, more than the fact that she loved him beyond reason, or that he was her husband, the father of her children, her soulmate or whatever romantic nonsense you want to call it. It wasn't anything she'd ever be comfortable talking about – though she'd come close to bringing it up to her sister, back when Phoebe was with Cole – but there was something about being with someone magical that made sex a different sort of experience.

Not just different – better. It went beyond the freedom that comes from being able to be herself, from not having to hold back a substantial part of who she was in a moment of intimacy. Her powers were active, offensive, while his were protective, in support of his pacifistic nature. But they were still powers. And the melding of the two added another element to their lovemaking.

After his vision quest, after the journey into darkness that had so drastically changed him, she had pulled herself away from him, found reasons not to go to bed at the same time ("Wyatt's been sniffling, I think I'll sleep in the boys' room tonight"). She kept this distance between them until the day her sisters got distracted by who knows what, and Leo stepped in to help with the vanquishing. Throughout the hunt, he was intuitive, proactive, anticipating the demons' attacks, then overpowering several of them in a show of strength that frankly turned her on.

"There is something I'm not telling you," he says to her that night as they watch their sons sleep. He assures her she's going to be OK with it – "Because I know you" – and he's right. He does know her. How could she have forgotten this? It's the one fundamental truth between them. He will always know her, he'll always know what she needs, even if he – if they – let other things get in the way.

She kisses him then, first, gently, then, more urgently. He lifts her into his arms as if she's a rag doll, and she wraps her arms around his neck like she's the heroine in some old movie. "I love you," he tells her, and she can't describe what it feels like to have him say those words to her again.

"Prove it," she whispers, and he responds by kissing her deeper, swinging her across the hall and into their bedroom. She wraps her legs around his waist and he pins her up against the wall with his body. Something unidentifiable surges between them, and she's consumed by her desire for him. She remembers when he was her boyfriend, her fiancé, her new husband, when they'd make love every night, and it's her dirty little secret, perhaps, that she's always been turned on by the magic between them.

And tonight, it's electrifying. It's as if her husband has been hit by a surge, and his heightened powers are now flowing into her. It's not like the change from White Lighter to Elder: that was a subtle shift, one that was less corporal, more cerebral. This is definitely physical, and she feels it in every inch of her body as she holds him tight, her skin tingling like she's being jolted by a hundred thousand tiny electric shocks. She can barely stand the pleasure it's producing, has to mash her mouth against his to try to ground herself against the rush of power that's overtaking them both.

And this is how Piper knows something fundamental has changed inside Leo.


	5. The Time During the Fight

**(A/N: **_OK, this one was a bit harder to write, partially because it veers away from how the action played out in this episode. Which is too bad, because the first time I watched it, I totally misread the fight as being foreplay for makeup sex. I won't comment on what that may say about me. =)_)

**The Time During the Fight**

(A/U during the episode of _Kill Billie Vol. 1_)

They can do cute. They can do tragic. They can do epic, against-all-odds, star-crossed love. They can bicker, they can snipe, they can make her sisters want to vanquish them both, or at the very least, pack up everything they own and move out of the manor as fast as they can.

What they can't do is normal.

The big joke on Piper's life is that she finally gets what it is she always thought she wanted – an identity without magic, a husband without powers or immortality or a destiny that's going to take him away from her and their boys – and she can't handle it.

The fight turns nasty. He never gets like this; it's a side of Leo she never sees, and it'd scare her if she wasn't so damn pissed off at him. There is nothing reasoned or logical behind the words they spit at each other, just all venom and emotions.

What makes it worse is that her dear sister decides to pick this very moment to parade a gaggle of reporters through the manor, throwing open Piper and Leo's bedroom door to prove some sort of demented point. The interruption shuts them up, but only for a moment, only until the reporters have followed Paige up to the attic and back down again, and then it's back to the sniping.

The press is gone, and the fight has escalated to the point where they aren't even using complete sentences. They are too close: too close to losing it, too close to think logically, too close to do anything but scream at each other, until the yelling turns into something else, something completely different.

If ever pressed, Piper would deny making the first move, though she's pretty sure Leo would be equally reluctant to admitting blame in the circumstances. All she knows is one moment, he's whining about how badly his life sucks, and she's screaming back something about taking responsibility for his own crappy decisions, and the next, she's ripping the ugly ass shirt she's always hated off his body and tossing it across the room as he grabs her around the waist and pulls her tight against him.

His mouth tears into hers, and she closes her eyes so she doesn't have to look at him, and maybe start to forgive him, because she's not ready for that yet. This is not some sort of makeup coupling, this isn't an end to anything, just an interruption of a fight that will undoubtedly continue at some future point. It's more primal than that. No foreplay, none of the tender words that usually characterize their lovemaking, no gentle caresses.

Angry sex. This, this they can do.

Clothes, everywhere. Bed, beneath them. She's not looking at him, she's not thinking about how goddamn pissed off she is right now, at him, at her sisters, at Billie, at this invasion into their lives that has once again taken everything she holds close and turned it into a big freakin' fishbowl for other people to look at, to judge. And her husband. Who is supposed to be supportive and kind and goddamn it, pliable, is not cooperating.

Well, parts of him are cooperating. That, she's making sure of.

As she keeps her eyes shut tight and pulls his body deeper into her own, she remembers suddenly what it was like to freeze him, sometimes accidentally, sometimes not, during these moments. Sometimes it was, well, amazing, and sometimes it made her feel so lonely, so unexpectedly empty that it instantly ruined all the pleasure otherwise associated with the act. If she thinks too hard about what is going on right now, what is at the root of all their fighting, she's afraid it'll be like that: she'll be so empty, she'll never get any of the good back.

But she can't think of that right now. She's not ready for reconciliation, for long talks or regretful words or apologies or compromises, any of that difficult stuff that would lead them back to good, and she isn't going to ask him, but she's pretty sure he feels that way, too. All she wants from him at the moment is this. His body. Her body. No words.

She comes quickly, and he does, too, which is good for him, she thinks, because she was about five seconds from rolling away from him, letting him finish on his own.

It's quiet. She lies on her back, and stares out the window to her left at absolutely nothing. They don't touch, just stay there on opposite sides of their bed in the now-silence of their room and try not to listen to each other breathe.

"I'm still really pissed off at you," he finally says.

"Good, because I kind of hate you right now," she says back.


	6. Epilogue: What Everyone Knows

(**A/N**: I just couldn't leave Piper and Leo on that note. So the final scene will be a time that doesn't fit the pattern, but I hope you don't mind. A big thank you to my reviewers – I'm so pleased and touched by your comments, I'd send y'all a Starbucks latte if I could!)

**Epilogue: What Everyone Knows**

**The Time He Came Back**

(Set during _Forever Charmed_ – after all the hugging, before the writing in the Book)

He's back. For real, for good. She can't stop smiling as he kisses her, and the applause of her family washes over her, reminding her of their wedding day. But this is even better. All she's wanted, all she's been focused on, all that she needs is right here, right now. Her sisters are alive, her sons are safe, and her husband is here, again, holding her as if he'll never let her go.

Time travel is a dicey thing, she knows this from experience, and no future is ever certain, but to know that there is a version of it in which she and Leo grow old together in this house is more than Piper could ever want. Until today, she'd had to take it on faith, and not much else. She feels as if she's been given the greatest gift, a real chance at happily ever after.

And somehow, that makes all the struggles they've gone through during the last eight years worth it.

There is not enough time with her family from her past, or from her future, but it's still more than anyone could ask for, so as sad as she is to see her mom, her grams, her adult sons leave, she is so grateful they were here for the best day of her life. Paige is anxious to return to her own husband, and Phoebe leaves with her, to wait for Coop at her condo.

"I was thinking I could take the boys back to my place for the night," her father says to Piper after everyone else has left, an awkward grin creeping across his face. "I mean, all their stuff is over there anyway – they've probably had enough excitement for one day, and we can all tote everything back here tomorrow."

"Oh, dad." Piper watches her husband as he sits on the floor playing with Wyatt, Chris on his lap. On one hand, she knows how much it means for him to be with his sons, to hold them again, watch them remember and adjust to their Daddy as if he's been here all along.

On the other, she really, really, really just wants Leo to herself.

"It's not a problem," her dad says. "I love having them around."

"Seeing mom again has brought out your romantic side," Piper teases him, as he puts his arm around her.

"Maybe. Maybe I can help you give your boys what you and your sisters missed out on, by not having your mother and I raise you together."

"Thanks, Daddy. Leo probably will want them to stay here, though. He's lost so much time with them."

"And he'll make up for it – starting tomorrow. They're going to be asleep in an hour, anyway."

"OK. You win. But we'll be over before breakfast to pick them up."

Having learned a few things during the years of her marriage, Piper presents the arrangement to Leo as decided fact, and, as predicted, he's somewhat resistant at first, reluctantly kissing his sons goodbye, carrying them out to Victor's car, his eyes heavy with emotion as he watches them drive away. But as soon as Victor and the boys are out of sight, he turns toward his wife, and the expression on his face tells her she's made the right choice.

"So we're alone?" His voice is ridiculously, unintentionally seductive as he follows her away from the front door and back through the house.

"The whole manor. Completely empty except for us."

"I can't remember the last time that happened," Leo says.

"With my sisters, and the boys, and don't forget all the demons," Piper smiles. "I'd say – never, maybe."

"We were alone, in this very room, on our first date." Leo takes her into his arms.

"Nah, not completely. My sisters came home while we were still down here."

"I don't remember that."

"That's because I froze you."

He laughs, and it's the most wonderful sound in the world. "What other secrets have you been keeping from me, you little witch?"

He kisses her again, and she has to make the effort to keep herself from crying, she's so happy. He's here, he's back, her husband, and he's totally familiar, in this blue shirt she's always loved, with his hair long against his forehead, and he tastes like heaven. No, better than heaven. He tastes like home.

"I love you so much," she says to him, pulling him down on the couch next to her. "Every day you were gone, every minute, I felt it, and all I wanted was to bring you back."

"I know," he says, stroking her hair. "I could always feel your faith in us."

When she makes love to her husband, finally, again, for the first time in forever, it passes so quickly. She wants to hold onto it, but she also wants it to be over – she's ready for it to be commonplace again, not something that makes her want to weep for all the nights they've missed.

After, she lays her head against his chest, breathing him in, as he holds her to him, tracing circles on her back with his fingertips. "There is not one single thing," he says to her, his voice low and intoxicating, "that I don't love about you right now."

He kisses her again, and it's like it was when they were new, or new again, unsure of just how much time they'd have together before some outside force tore them apart, when their lovemaking was always urgent, and forbidden, a need that had to be fulfilled. It's more than just wanting, more than just having.

They take advantage of the empty manor, before ending up in their bedroom. She's lost count of the number of times they've come together, the number of conversations they've started and stopped, the number of times she's burst into tears. She thinks she may have fallen asleep for a few hours, or maybe it's just been a few minutes. She wakes to find him propped up on one elbow, watching her, and she smiles up at him before pulling him back down so his body is flush with hers, his face inches away from her own.

"Hi," she says.

"Hi," he echoes.

Behind him, sunlight streams through the window.


End file.
